award winning books

DE RAMP / THE FLOOD

DE RAMP / THE FLOOD OF 1953 IN DOCUMANTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

The Dutch publication ‘De Ramp van 1953’ is an edition of the ‘Vereeniging’ to promote the interests of bookshops whose benefits benefit ‘Het Nationaal Rampenfonds’ (the national disaster fund). All those involved, such as authors, photographers, designers, lithographers, printers and bookbinders, have collaborated anonymously and with no personal benefit to themselves. This book, published in a circulation of more than 600.000 copies, is now part of the collective memory of many Dutch people.

In the fifties an alteration from press photography to documentary photography arose. The photo registration of the North Sea flood disaster is one of the first examples.

Research has pointed out that many well-known Dutch photographers (Henk Jonker, Ed van Wijk, Cas Oorthuys, Ed van der Elsken, Eva Besnyö, Maria Austria, Henk Nieuwenhuijs, Kees Molkenboer, Dolf Kruger, Aart Klein, Martien Coppens, Jo Bokma, Ad Windig and Frits Gerritsen) who at the time were at the beginning of their careers, travelled to the disaster area in the early days of the flood to do photographic report. Many of them have a remarkable style of photography. A new selection of heart touching photos has been made from the complete series of the photographers concerned, and in which the nature of a documentary becomes visible.